What’s the future of online travel agents?

September 01, 2010 |

As one of the seminars in the 'TRAVELtech: New Kind of Normal" media conference held in Sydney on Tuesday 31 August, a panel of three travel and hospitality experts discussed the future of online travel agents.

OTAs need to position themselves in the value chain, said CEO of TravelTainment - Amadeus Leisure, Andy Owen-Jones. The three aspects of this positioning are: (1) understanding their customer proposition; (2) knowing their intrinsic capabilities and (3) monitoring their environment.

The fourth criterion, not yet tapped by OTAs, was the 'Inspirational' sphere which inspired a site's visitors to want to travel. Instead, OTAs currently play a reactive role, having prospective clients referred to them by gateways such as Google, Apple or Amazon, he said.

Mr Owen-Jones hypothesised that the dominance of these gateways would lead to a growth in travel packaging, a larger role for recommendations, and increased segmentation.

"But the core competency that every OTA will need to realise over the next five years is data management," he said.

Get the full story at eTravel Blackboard Asia

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